(no subject)

[skygiants]

Recently I keep having conversations with people that go like this:

me: allow me to show off to you how much I know about the Roman Empire
interlocutor: yes good job you've named four emperors, congratulations
me: it's because I just recently read this book on murder in ancient Rome! the book was very interesting and asked thoughtful questions and contained a lot of useful information thoughtfully presented --
interlocutor: sounds great!
me: BUT, also, unfortunately, it's written entirely in BUCKLE UP TWITTER style --
interlocutor: ah.
me: but the information IS really good, I just wish the book would stop apologizing to me for giving it to me! I'M READING THIS BOOK BECAUSE I WANT INFORMATION! PLEASE STOP ASSUMING THAT I'M BORED BY THE INFORMATION I PICKED UP THE BOOK FOR!!!
interlocutor: I see this book left an impression.
me: yes. sorry. would you like another factoid about the Roman Empire.

The book is called A Fatal Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (as many of you already know as I have seen many of you already post about this book in more or less exactly these terms, and of course you were all right.) It's a detailed, thorough examination that begins by asking the question of what kinds of killings actually count as murder, and whether you can call something a murder if it's only considered as damage to an individual rather than a crime against the state for which retribution is enacted by a state, which in many cases ancient Rome didn't -- which is an angle I would never have thought to consider and provides a really good lens for through which to examine Roman society as a whole. The author works her way down from the big famous Imperial murders through patricides, matricides and street crime down to the perfectly-socially-acceptable-in-Rome deaths of gladiators and slaves with specific examples and useful analysis and I really enjoyed reading it, except when I hit a phrase like this and wanted to throw the book across the room:

Before we get there we need to see how murder became so central to Roman politics, and I'm sorry but it involves a lot of politics and chat about land reform policies, and it's awful. We can get through this together; I believe in us.

STOP! STOP THAT!! JUST TELL ME ABOUT THE LAND REFORM! I PROMISE YOU I TRULY WANT TO KNOW!

Comments

[happydork]

But. You're reading the history book. To find out. About the history.

I'm so confused. It's as if fanfic stopped in the middle to be like, before we get to the kissing I'm sorry but we've got to have some mutual pining while sharing a bed, I know, I hate it too, no one is here for this, but we can get through it together.

[loligo]

LOL! Exactly like that.

And also... who doesn't want to hear about land reform? I mean, just in general, I feel that that is a solid topic. But maybe that's just me! *g*

[genarti]

RIGHT, that's what got me when Becca described this authorial approach! Like, as much as I hate BUCKLE UP TWITTER threads (and oh, do I hate them), I will grant them that at least they're making an assumption about their audience that may be based on an assessment of the OP's actual followers' tastes. For this... who do they think is going to be reading a book about the history of Roman murder, if not people who are interested in Roman social history??

(True crime podcast aficionados who are just here for the murder, I guess. But there are about a zillion other books they could read if they didn't want to get Roman social history along with all the murders -- and every true crime podcast aficionado I know is also a massive nerd, although to be fair most people I know are massive nerds -- so it still seems like a baffling conclusion to draw.)

[china_shop]

It's as if fanfic stopped in the middle to be like, before we get to the kissing I'm sorry but we've got to have some mutual pining while sharing a bed, I know, I hate it too, no one is here for this, but we can get through it together.

LOL!

[skygiants]

THANK YOU FOR THE MOST PERFECT ANALOGY TO EXPLAIN WHY THIS BAFFLES ME. "it's awful" MY GOOD DOCTOR SOUTHON WHY DO YOU THINK I AM READING THIS TEXT

[aella_irene]

This makes me so mad. I might really enjoy this book, but "Buckle Up, Twitter!" makes me grit my teeth

[lannamichaels]

I'm so confused. It's as if fanfic stopped in the middle to be like, before we get to the kissing I'm sorry but we've got to have some mutual pining while sharing a bed, I know, I hate it too, no one is here for this, but we can get through it together.

Next time I get a metafiction square in a bingo card, I should definitely do this, but I don't know if I could keep the bit up long enough to hit a minimum word count of even 500 words ;)